Web pages are well known for providing graphics and associated information over the Internet. A Web page generally includes an HTML file with embedded bit mapped graphics. The HTML file may be created and bit mapped graphics embedded in the file using an HTML editor. Generally described, bit mapped graphics are computer graphics stored as collections of bits in memory locations corresponding to pixels on the screen. Thus, images are treated as a collection of dots. As a result, bit mapped graphics files are generally large and take a relatively long amount of time to download over the Internet. Additionally, the bit mapped graphics are static and device dependent.
A hot spots editor may be used to generate hot spots for a graphic. A hot spot associates an action with a defined area of the graphic. For Web pages, such actions may include changing a browser status line or jumping to another Web page in response to a user click in the defined area. The hot spot editor approach is inflexible in that only rectangular hot spots can generally be defined. This becomes significant in certain applications such as maps where the regions are too complicated to describe using simple rectangles.